Big Sur >> When nine California condors were scheduled to fly to the Central Coast this past weekend, organizers were not planning to take advantage of the largest wingspan in North America. The condors have a wing span that can measure nearly 10 feet, but they were to be put in airplanes coming from The World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, Idaho.

The birds will be released into the wild at Pinnacles National Park and in Big Sur. But first, the team at The Peregrine Fund had to catch the condors in their aviary and get them safely into their kennels.

“It is hard work preparing the condors for the trip, but we want to ensure their safety throughout the process,” condor propagation manager Marti Jenkins said in a prepared statement.

According to Kelly Sorenson, executive director of the Ventana Wildlife Society, four zoos raise California condors for release to the wild: San Diego, Los Angeles, Oregon and The World Center for Birds.

“Combined, those four zoos produce 30 or more condors set for release every year,” he said.

The plan was for the condor propagation team from The Peregrine Fund, which runs The World Center for Birds of Prey, to drive the condors in their kennels to the airport, where the condors were loaded onto planes. LightHawk, a nonprofit flight service that uses volunteer pilots to partner with conservation organizations, was to fly the nine birds to California using seven planes.

“This is going to be a big operation, but we are so happy to have the chance to help with the recovery of this critically endangered and iconic species,” Christine Steele, western program coordinator at LightHawk, said in a prepared statement before the flight. “We’ve worked with The Peregrine Fund previously on their Aplomado Falcon and Orange-breasted Falcon projects, so we are excited to be partnering again to conserve endangered raptors.”

Tarps were placed under the kennels to protect the planes’ interior.

The Ventana Wildlife Society and a representative from the Pinnacles National Park’s condor program were planning to welcome the birds when they arrived in California.

“These birds were raised in the presence of adult condors to keep them as wild as possible so to speak,” Sorenson said.

The group of condors hatched about a year and a half ago, starting off weighing a few ounces. After their parents were done nurturing them, they weighed as much as 20 pounds.

Sorenson said the condors are not yet be ready to be released in the wild on the Central Coast. They will be held in a flight pen at their release sites, at Pinnacles National Park or in Big Sur. The pen is large enough for the birds to flap their wings and build up their strength.

“They’re also interacting with other condors, so they’re getting socialized,” Sorenson said. “Because they’re being held at the release site, the free-flying birds that were previously released now come back to the release site and interact with the young birds prior to them even being released. That’s actually a real important step, sort of like introducing the young birds to the wild flock before you let them go.”

The condors are trained to avoid landing on power poles, which could be fatal for the birds. Fake power poles, which give the birds a mild shock, are located inside and outside the flight pens. Sorenson said condors live long lives and are intelligent species that can remember their lesson of getting shocked by the fake power pole, so the training has been very effective.

“Their almost 10-foot wing span is likely to touch two power lines at the same time for a lot of the (power-pole) configurations that are out there,” he said. “In problem areas, where we know it’s a concern for eagles and condors, we work with PG&E and they do a lot of work to separate the lines and make them wider apart.”

According to Rachel Wolstenholme, the condor program manager at Pinnacles National Park, the California condor population was in steep decline in the 1960s. Only 22 remained in existence by the late 1980s. But captive breeding has been successful since 1988.

“It was scary to think that this incredible species, which has soared over our landscape since the Pleistocene, could go extinct on our watch,” Wolstenholme said in a prepared statement. “Thankfully, because of the efforts of all of the numerous partners in the condor recovery program, there are now nearly 300 California condors flying free in California, Mexico, Utah and Arizona.”

According to Sorenson, lead poisoning from spent ammunition is the biggest threat to the California condor population.

“That’s why we’re giving ranchers and hunters high-performing copper ammunition,” he said. “We’ve been doing that since 2012 and now we’re really starting to see the fruits of our labor. Condor fatalities appear to be coming down and it looks like the population is more stable out there.”

The nine condors will be released in late fall or early winter along with another group of condors that will go from captivity to being set free in the wild on the Central Coast.

“We like to kind of trickle them out a couple at a time, make sure that everything’s going well, before we release the next two,” Sorenson said. “It’s just the safer way to get the birds out, rather than some big, grandiose event.”